Stop chasing position and Start becoming the person who can carry one.
Please come with me as we dissect a very delicate terrain as I am led this beautiful Sunday afternoon. But before we continue, permit me to say something that may offend the "connections first" school of thought:
Over the years, I have observed that it is not everyone who is desperately looking for a position is actually preparing for the responsibility that comes with it. And not everyone sitting in a position is the most qualified person to be there. This is one of the uncomfortable truths about life.
Often, you'll hear people say: "Right place + right time + right moves + skill = success."
I agree with this, but if I am to rearrange it , My sequence would be:
RELEVANT SKILL + RIGHT MOVES + RIGHT PLACE.
Why?
The reason is because positioning without preparation can become a disaster.
To elaborate this, I can tell you that I have watched people chase titles, offices, appointments, visibility and influence while neglecting the one thing that should make those opportunities sustainable when attained which is CAPACITY.
You see, pressure can make people desperate. Bills are waiting, family is waiting, society is watching, your mates are announcing promotions, someone younger than you is already a CEO, someone you started with is now politically influential, and social media keeps reminding you that everybody seems to be "winning." except you.
So you start chasing positions: Any position. Anywhere. By any means.
But here is the problem: Getting into a room you are not prepared to function in does not mean you have succeeded. Sometimes it simply means you have become the next bottleneck. This is because a position can expose incompetence faster than it exposes competence. And when an unprepared person gets authority, everybody around them can suffer. The organization suffers. The institution suffers.The economy suffers. The people suffer too. And ironically, the genuinely competent people around them may become frustrated, underutilized or eventually leave
This simply indicate that a title does not manufacture capacity. It only reveals how much capacity you already have.
But let's be fair. Skill alone isn't also enough either. I have seen extraordinarily gifted people miss opportunities because they were too shy to make the right move. They knew their craft, they had the ideas, they had the intellectual capacity, but they didn't know how to introduce themselves, they didn't know when to speak, they didn't know whom to approach, they didn't know how to communicate value without appearing arrogant, and they didn't know when to take the risk. They were qualified...but strategically invisible.
Then I have seen another category.
Highly skilled, excellent at networking, excellent communicators, fearless movers who know how to knock on doors. But the problem is that they keep knocking on the wrong doors or they arrive at the right door at the wrong time. That's why positioning matters. Sometimes you don't have a skill problem. What you have is an ecosystem problem. This means that your talent may be real, your capacity may be exceptional, your ideas may be ahead of the environment. But the environment may not have the maturity, structure or appetite to receive what you carry. So don't confuse being undervalued with being unqualified.
But here's another uncomfortable truth.I want you to know that human systems are not always meritocratic. What this means is that sometimes competence gets the position. Sometimes relationships do. Sometimes timing does. Sometimes politics does. Sometimes proximity does. And sometimes...obedience gets mistaken for competence. You know the person. Always agreeing. Never questioning. Never challenging. Never disturbing the comfort of the powerful.
You'll hear: "Yes sir." "Yes ma." "Whatever you say." "Absolutely."
And suddenly, everybody calls them "loyal." Meanwhile, the person asking difficult questions, proposing better solutions and refusing intellectual surrender is labelled "difficult." This happens everywhere both in Politics, Business, Organizations, Religious institutions, Academia, Families, Communities, Even nations. You'll observe that sometimes the system doesn't reward the most competent person. It rewards the person who makes the system most comfortable, and that can be painful to watch.
There are moments when I am tempted to tell the gifted, outspoken, and intellectually vibrant person to "Learn to play foolish."But I can't, because you can hide the sun temporarily, but you cannot permanently teach daylight to become darkness. This means that reality eventually conducts an audit and competence eventually creates evidence. And systems that continuously suppress capable people eventually pay for it through mediocrity, stagnation and institutional decline.
But there is one more variable we often forget.
GOD.
You see eh! You can prepare. You can strategize.You can network. You can position yourself. You can develop your skills. You can make the right moves. And still... you cannot control everything.
So we must understand that there are seasons only God can explain. There are doors no strategy could have opened. There are opportunities that arrive after years of preparation. There are moments when God can rearrange an entire system just to put a prepared person where they belong.
And ultimately, we need to know that sometimes God doesn't open the door, instead He rearranges the building. That is why I refuse to judge people's timelines too quickly. So make peace with the fact that someone else's promotion is not proof that you are failing. Someone else's appointment is not proof that you are forgotten. Someone else's visibility is not proof that your work is invisible. And a delayed opportunity is not automatically a denied opportunity.
See it this way instead:
Sometimes... YOU ARE BEING PREPARED.
Sometimes... THE ENVIRONMENT IS BEING PREPARED.
Sometimes... THE SEASON IS BEING PREPARED.
And sometimes, all three are happening simultaneously.
So if you are waiting for that opportunity:
Don't stop learning. Don't stop building. Don't compromise your convictions just to become acceptable. Don't abandon your craft because someone less qualified got the position. Don't become bitter because someone else arrived before you. And don't become so desperate for a position that you forget to become the person capable of carrying it.
Prepare your skill. Sharpen your judgment. Build your character. Learn strategic movement. Study people. Understand systems. Build relationships. Know when to speak. Know when to wait. Know when to move. And most importantly: Don't give up on God because your calendar and His calendar don't look the same.
Understand that Life is not a one-size-fits-all experiment. Different people have different assignments. Different seasons. Different ecosystems. Different battles. Different opportunities. And Different timings.
So perhaps the real formula isn't simply: Skill + Place + Time + Moves = Success.
Perhaps it is: CAPACITY + CHARACTER + STRATEGIC MOVEMENT + POSITIONING + TIMING + DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
And that changes the conversation completely, because the question isn't only: "How do I get there?" The bigger question is: "Who must I become before I get there?"
So let me ask you something: Which one do you think matters most: skill, positioning, timing, strategic moves, relationships, or divine providence?
And have you ever watched a highly competent person miss an opportunity simply because they were in the wrong place, moved at the wrong time, or refused to play politics?
Tell me your experience, and let's have an intelligent conversation about the things people rarely say publicly about competence, positioning, power, opportunity and success.
And if you know someone who is highly skilled but currently frustrated because their opportunity hasn't arrived yet, share this with them. Their season may not be over. It may not have started yet.
Shalom!
[ACN_JN8:12]
#newground2026 #leadership #nigeria #everyone #NationBuilding #impact
